United Colours
by M.L. Shards
Summary: After her date stands her up Kat's alone and rather depressed until she meets a younger man with an affinity for the colour red... .Oneshot.


Why do I keep getting these weird one shot ideas in my head? And why do all the Dino Thunder references and characters pop up in all the strange ones?

Sorry Misfit Rangers is on my other computer and if I don't write I go crazy, so oneshots appear quite randomly and mainly in the Power Rangers section…

Anyways, bit of a strange idea, weird pairing, don't spaz because of the pairing…

**Tommy/Kim fans, there's no Tommy/Kat except for references to the past**, safe to read, lol

Why does everyone hate Kat? I'll admit due to my inability to view season three of MMPR and I have for some reason not gotten around to watching Zeo yet, I only have the first half of turbo and Wikipedia to go off of for character, but she seems nice enough (asides from the whole working for Rita and Zedd at the beginning).

I'm a review addict, I'm attending meetings to get over it, but until then, you can help me by…no…I'm kidding, not addicted, but do like them.

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"Maybe I'm just not that pretty."

She took another swig of her drink as she looked around the club for the date she was supposed to meet…an hour ago…Logically she knew if he wasn't here by now he must not be coming, but she couldn't bring herself to admit it.

Maybe he was simply like her boyfriend from high school, perpetually late…

She sniffled a bit.

She felt horribly strange in a place like this, pounding music, neon lights, obviously drunk people attempting to dance intermingled with young women in tube tops, miniskirts and leather boots and their boyfriends or potential one night stands. She wasn't sure why she'd agreed to meet him here.

Due to her athletic training (and other rather strange activities she rarely discussed involving bright spandex costumes), she'd never partied much as a teenager or kept in good contact with the friends she had had before she'd moved. It was strange coming home and discovering it was a completely different place.

She missed Angel Grove immensely.

She'd tried to call all of her old friends, but found most of their phone numbers out of order. She had managed to get a hold of Rocky who promised he'd email her the working numbers and addresses he had, and Tommy and her kept in contact via email but…

But all in all she felt utterly ignored and forgotten.

She looked around at the dance floor and briefly considered going to join them, just maybe she could meet someone, or run into an old friend and then the night wouldn't be a total loss, but she couldn't bring herself to move.

She was only twenty-six but she felt like she was fifty and definitely didn't belong.

"You're beautiful darlin'" the bartender replied to her question as he wiped the glass bar in front of her and gave her a weak smile. He was younger man wearing a bright pink shirt with slicked back black hair, "Why are you here all alone and not chatting up one of those hot young things on the dance floor?"

She looked up at him with teary eyes, "I don't know," she sighed, "I was supposed to be meeting someone but-"

The bartender nodded, "Ah well, he's a jerk. You deserve better."

She sighed as the comment brought a small smile to her face; she fiddled with her glass a bit "Thank you for that."

"Anytime," he replied smiling back at her "It's kind of the bartender's unofficial job. Haven't seen you around here before, new in town or just don't get out much?"

"Both…sort of…I used to live around here, and then I moved to California for a few years and…well…now I'm back," she sniffled again, "big mistake, no one here likes me anymore, they didn't think I kept as good a contact as I could have, I can't get a date…"

The bartender smiled sympathetically and poured her another drink. She moved to pay him but he shook his head, "Don't bother, it's on the house."

"Thanks," she sighed as she sipped the drink and a new song came on. It sounded like a techno mix of a familiar song, but she couldn't put her finger on which one it was.

What had happened to her life? Where had she gone wrong? She was too young to be passed her prime! She couldn't figure it out….

She wasn't "trendy" per say, but she was classy, not trashy, and (in her personal opinion as well as others) quite pretty. Why she kept getting stood up was beyond her. The few friends she did keep in touch with were normally out on dates on the weekends, doing "date" things that require a couple, things that she wasn't invited to.

It was hard. She was amazed she hadn't flown back to California already.

Maybe she was afraid what the others would think. They'd all moved along in their lives, she'd heard Tommy was teaching, and Tanya was out promoting a young woman who people felt was the "next Avril Lavigne" as she'd read on the internet. Kim was competing in gymnastics still, Billy was on Aquitar, Aisha was in Africa, Justin had taken time off after high school and then gone to university, Rocky was in university, Adam had taken a job coaching soccer at a school in Mariner Bay, Jason…well, she didn't know what Jason was up to these days…

The point was what had she done? Sure, she was dancing like she wanted, but you couldn't be a ballerina for more than ten or so years and time was passing rapidly.

She had so many questions…

Why couldn't she be more adventurous? Why couldn't she be more attractive? What did she want to do with the rest of her life? Who did she want to spend it with? Was there anyone for her to spend it with?

"I hate my life right now," she muttered tiredly.

"Well it might start to get a bit better," the bartender replied nudging her with her elbow, "is that your date?"

She looked up and over at a young man in a leather jacket, red t-shirt, and blue jeans who was eyeing her carefully from the dance floor. It looked younger than her, probably twenty-one or so, brown hair, kind of cute actually.

But she'd never seen him before in her life…

She shook her head, "I don't know who that is."

"Well he appears to know you," the bartender replied nudging her again, "and he appears to be with a group of guys, no girlfriend in sight. Go talk to him."

"Well I-"

"Come on," he pressed, "I can't stand to see a pretty thing like you so depressed looking, he looks like a lot of fun, just tell him you saw him checking you out."

She turned around to get a better look at him and he averted his head, but his eyes peaked out at her through dark brown bangs. It did look like he was checking her out, but was embarrassed by it, or maybe just realized she wasn't who he thought she was. She bit her bottom lip as she weighed her options.

Sit and be depressed or take a chance…

"Go on," the bartender insisted as he physically began pushing her shoulders, "what's the worst that could happen? He says no?"

She glanced down at her drink.

Well…she was a ranger once; she'd survived worse than rejection from someone she didn't know…

She downed her drink and made her way over to where the younger man was, he appeared to have made the same decision at the same time and they met halfway between the bar and the dance floor. They both looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"Uh…hi," she began her resolve weakening slightly. What should she say next?...Oh! Name! "I'm Kat."

The younger man's eyes lit up a bit, "Hillard?" he asked leaning in so he could hear her response better.

"Yeah, how did you-"

"I thought it was you," the man replied letting out a sigh of relief, "I didn't want to ask incase it wasn't and-"

A million things raced through her head, none making much sense.

Was he a stalker? No, she'd never seen him before…

And of course, she thought sarcastically "No one wants to be stalked by a cute guy."

Old friend? No, too young…and didn't have an Australian accent, at all, not even a bad one.

"How do I know you?" she questioned eyeing him suspiciously.

He smiled weakly and leaned in so she could feel his breath on her neck. She shivered. It felt wrong and weird, she'd met this guy two seconds ago and already he was telling her a secret? He was kind of creepy, but cute, but if he was the age she thought he was…he was Justin's age, and the thought of her and Justin going out was seriously creepy…

She was having an suspicion overload…

He said one simple sentence, "I was a red."

Oh…not a stalker, that was good…wait…what had he said?

"Red?" she repeated as it sunk in. She looked at his red shirt and it slowly clicked, "Oh…got it…"

There was a bit of an awkward pause.

"You're a lot hotter in person than in the video Dr. Oliver showed us," the younger man said then groaned and smacked his forehead, "crap, I said that out loud, didn't I?"

She giggled and could feel a flush creeping into her cheeks. Must have been old ranger footage…she only knew one Oliver, so Tommy must have been the man's teacher.

And he'd said she was hot…

She could feel her self esteem returning…

"Oh, I'm Conner by the way," introduced holding his hand out to her, she smiled and shook it firmly.

"What brings you to Australia?" she asked pleasantly, well at least she found someone to talk to besides the bartender...

I'm from Reefside, I'm taking a year off school to travel a bit with some people, uh…Dr. O…err…I mean Tommy was my science teacher…" he explained gesturing behind him to a group of what appeared to be the stereotypical jocks who were harassing a short redhead in a green dress. He paused in thought for a moment, and then added a bit sheepishly "want to dance?"

She wondered if Tommy had told his students that they had used to date because she highly doubted this young man would ask her that if he knew. Or maybe he did know and didn't care…

She was about to tell him it would be strange to dance with one of her ex-boyfriend's ex-students but…

She glanced back over at the bar where the bartender was watching the whole thing intently, ignoring angry customers as they demanded more drinks and refills. He sat there watching them as though he was love struck, elbows propped on the counter, chin resting on his fists.

She looked over at her empty glass and the lone stool…

"What the hell!" she exclaimed linking arms with the younger man. Maybe she could afford to let loose a bit. "Lead me to the dance floor." she instructed in an over the top manner and Conner smiled in response.

Looking back over her shoulder, the bartender winked at her and she winked back a flirty smile coming to her face. She giggled excitedly at the prospect of actually having some fun tonight and as she imagined the expressions on Tommy's face when she emailed him and told him she'd been out at a club dancing with one of his students.

And maybe, just to go with her new sense of fun, she'd "forget" to give him the details and leave him alone with his thoughts to piece together exactly who it was and what (if anything) "else" they did…

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Reviews are appreciated.


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